Misconceptions
by Megalink1126
Summary: The ramblings of a male Gardevoir as he recounts his life up to the present. One-shot


**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon in any way, shape, or form. Also, the views discussed in this one-shot are not necessarily my own views, just so you guys know.**

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People say that stereotyping is bad. After all, you're just making assumptions that just because this one person is this, then they must have this bad quality to them. Let me give you some examples. For instance, just because someone's from England, that does not automatically mean they have horrid yellow teeth. Just because someone is really good in a bunch of sports does not mean that they are bumbling idiots. Just because you're a waitress (or waiter) or a flight attendant, and your job makes you constantly smile and be pleasant to your customers does not automatically mean you turn into some bitter witch.

The same thing happens to Pokémon. Not all Rhyperior are bloodthirsty tanks whose only reason to live is to fight with other things over territory. Not all Ghost Pokémon like to scare others, or even like the dark. Not all Ludicolo like to dance around and are always jolly. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point, yes?

Now, why am I telling you all this? Because I have been on the receiving end of a common stereotype for much too long, and I am sick of it. For I am a Gardevoir, but not just any Gardevoir. No, I am a _male_ Gardevoir.

People nowadays have the common misconception that all Gardevoir are female, thanks to the discovery of the Dawn Stone that allows male Kirlia to evolve into a strong and proud Gallade. But not all of us are so lucky. Dawn Stones are sometimes very hard to find, and occasionally, a poor soul like me will end up evolving before we ever find one, forever cursed with being a Gardevoir.

It was not always like this. Before those damn scientists found out what the Dawn Stone could do, there were male Gardevoir everywhere. No one thought anything of it. Sure, we were a weird species for males, I'll admit that. It's not every day that you see a guy in a dress, a girly hairdo, and looks, well, just downright feminine. But there was nothing we could do about it, and we accepted it. There was nothing to be ashamed of if you were a male Gardevoir.

But those days soon ended soon after I was born. When people discovered the Gallade, everyone wanted to evolve their male Kirlia into one of the things. I don't blame them. After all, it had finally lifted the curse off of the males of our species. No longer would we be forced to walk around looking like a woman for the rest of our lives after we evolved. For us, it seemed like a miracle.

Male Gardevoir soon became a thing of the past, as more and more Gallade were created. Soon, the male species of Gardevoir was virtually nonexistent. I guess that's why the humans suddenly got the idea that all Gardevoir were female. Most of them didn't know any better, and soon, their idiocy spread like wildfire throughout their entire species.

Obviously, in this new era, all young boy Ralts dreamed of one day becoming a strong and powerful Gallade. I was no exception. Every day I would train myself, gaining experience, honing my skills, all in the hopes that one day I could attain my goals. And just like me, all of my friends worked towards reaching their own goals, training each and every day.

And then, I evolved.

I tell you, evolution is such a weird experience, and it's not the easiest thing to describe. I'll do my best though. Right before you evolve, a giant burst power suddenly overwhelms you, as if it broke through some sort of barrier in your belly. It begins to change you as it floods through the body, stretching out your skin, giving you new traits, and filling you with more power than you ever imagined could be possible. It doesn't really hurt either. It's sort of a tingly feeling as your skin shifts and grows in new ways. And then, as soon as it begins, it's all over, and you can never go back to what you were.

Being a male Kirlia in my tribe could be rough. First of all, you have a skirt in that form, long green hair, and are just downright graceful most of the time. Because of this, a lot of the younger male Ralts would often poke and make fun of the male Kirlia. They would taunt us and insult us, forgetting that they too would one day be a Kirlia. Indeed, once you became a Kirlia, you wanted to become a Gallade as quickly as possible.

That's why the elders in our tribe decided that all male Kirlia would have the choice of being able to go out on their own on a quest to find a Dawn Stone. If you could find one, you were obviously a Kirlia of noble skill, and only deserved to be allowed to evolve into an elite Gallade. Obviously, all male Kirlia took the challenge, me being one of them.

It's a strange feeling, being out in the wild by yourself. You have no one to look out for you. You have to do everything by yourself in order to survive. And after living all your life in a tribe, it gets pretty lonely. But still, the dream of being a Gallade is what drives us on. It helps us to keep going. It becomes an obsession. Or at least, even more of an obsession then it previously was.

It was during my time traveling that I met Crista.

I still remember that day clearly, for it was the day that my entire life took a turn for the worse. I was sitting by a stream, resting after a long, three day hike over a mountain range. I had been injured in a fight the night before by a Houndour, who had bit my leg and made walking painful. I was lucky to be able to Teleport away; otherwise I probably would have been doggy chow.

So I'm sitting on the bank of this stream, my injured leg in the water as I did my best to make it feel better, when this girl suddenly comes tumbling out of the woods into the running water downstream. Now some might ask themselves why I didn't just Teleport away at the first sign of danger, or in other words, a little girl that apparently doesn't even know how to walk correctly. The thing is though; I never really had a lot of experience around humans. I had lived with my tribe for my entire life, and hadn't seen a human since, well, ever at that point. Sure, I had heard stories of humans, but most of them just talked about the humans leaving them alone, or, worst case scenario, attacking them with another Pokémon. Sometimes the humans would even help them if they needed it. At that point, injured and exhausted from my travels, I was really hoping that human was the later, or at least the kind that just ignored me.

Unfortunately for me, I'm not the luckiest Pokémon in the world.

The next thing I know, the girl was on her feet again, staring wide-eyed at me. I stared back at her, a small, nervous smile on my face. We stayed like that, just staring at each other, before the girl began jumping up and down excitedly, punching the air and splashing water everywhere. Before I knew what was happening, this Sableye suddenly came out of a capsule she was carrying, and leaped at me. I was so surprised I didn't even try to Teleport away. After all, it's one thing to hear stories of Poké Balls, but to actually see the speed and the flash of blinding light of one used in front of you for the first time ever is a shocking experience.

Now the only thing worse than a Dark-type Pokémon for a Psychic-Type like me is a Dark-type Pokémon that's partially Ghost. In other words, I don't like Sableye. And the fact that one was now attacking me when I was injured in the middle of the woods was something that I definitely was not expecting. I tried my best to defend myself, but I just didn't have the energy. I didn't even have the strength after a few hits to even Teleport away.

Needless to say, I was an easy capture.

Just like evolution, being captured is a weird experience. And just like evolving, it's kind of hard to explain. Imagine your atoms suddenly being ripped apart painlessly and sucked into a vacuum, only to end up in a tiny, cramped space. You begin to panic at the containment, the unusual arrangement of your body. It's…unnatural. But even though I tried to struggle, I was just too weak. And thus, my fate was sealed.

From then on, my entire life revolved around my new trainer, Crista. Whatever she told me to do, I had to. I guess it just goes with the whole capture thing. That Poké Ball messes with your mind. It changes your personality. Before, I never would have thought about being a slave to a human, but now, I didn't seem to mind.

Most of the time.

The thing is, Crista really wanted to have a Gardevoir, not a Gallade. But even worse than that, she didn't even seem to know I was a guy. Whenever she didn't call me by my name, she would always refer to me as 'my girl' or something along the lines of that. It's humiliating.

But even worse than that, she would sometimes refer to me as an 'it.' Seriously, do I sound like an 'it' to you? Am I some kind of tool for the humans to use, and then just throw away when I'm broken? NO! I am a living, breathing being for crying out loud! A living, breathing being, mind you, that could end your pathetic little life with just the power of my mind, and then walk away without ever having to have even lifted a finger!

…Sorry, got a little bit carried away there. Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah, Crista. Don't get me wrong, I like my trainer most of the time. It's just that sometimes she could be denser than a brick wall reinforced with titanium steel and Machamp glued to its entire surface. Seriously, sometimes I think those guys are just muscle and hormones. I swear, half the time I meet one of the males of that species and I look down below his belt…well, you get the picture, right? I can't believe those pea-brains can't even tell the difference between male and female. I expect more from a Pokémon. Humans…not so much.

Anyway, I spent quite awhile with Crista as a Kirlia. It was pretty much a constant battle between us then. She so badly wanted me to evolve into a Gardevoir, but I refused. My dream of being a Gallade never wavered, not even for a second. I tried to convince her to let me become a Gallade. I did everything I could possibly do to send her my message of what I wanted with my own life.

Every day I would train in the physical ways of a Gallade, getting used to the feel of my arms slicing through the air, imagining what it would be like to have actual blades attached to them, and building up muscle. Every time we saw a picture of a Gallade in a shop window, in a magazine, or even on the television, I would always point to it before pointing at myself, smiling.

Apparently, my messages weren't fully received.

Whenever I tried to tell Crista what I wanted, she would always say something along the lines of "Silly Kirlia, only boy Ralts can evolve into Gallade, not a girl like you," or "I'm sure one day you'll find a nice Gallade, and you'll live happily ever after."

Seriously? My dreams were being held back by a twelve year old girl and her inability to realize I was a guy and to decipher what I was saying?

Now how did I become a Gardevoir you ask? Well, I really didn't have much of a choice.

One night when we were camping out in the woods, we ran into a pack of Mightyena. We had been camping for over a week, and all of us were pretty tired. But when the Mightyena attacked, we all fought our hardest, even me, who is at a major disadvantage to Dark-types. Thank Arceus that I had learned Magical Leaf with Crista, otherwise I would have been absolutely no help at all.

Anyway, we all fought bravely, but one by one, my fellow Pokémon all fell, even freakin' Hehehe-I'm-so-great-none-of-you-would-even-have-a-hope-standing-up-against-Hey-look-shiny! Sableye. Eventually, I was the only thing standing between what remained of the pack and Crista. And trust me; I didn't stand a chance as a Kirlia.

And so, I had a difficult choice to make; either stay as I was and possibly have me, Crista, or both of us die, or give up my dream and give into evolution. And as much as I wanted to be a Gallade, I wanted to live even more.

So I gave into the power and let it morph me, change me into what I never wanted to be. And for making me become a Gardevoir, you can bet that I focused all my anger and newfound strength into absolutely destroying those damn Mightyena. Needless to say, they didn't stand a chance. I killed each and every one of those flea-bitten mongrels.

I still think those bastards deserved a harsher punishment for what they did to me.

Now some of you may be asking yourselves, what's the big deal? After all, you were girly as a Kirlia, and now you're girly as a Gardevoir. Plus, you get a ton of power from your evolution. Well let me tell you something, there's a big difference.

When I was a Kirlia, at least I had hope. Hope that one day I could evolve and would gain some respect finally. But more importantly, I needed my pride restored. Could you imagine waking up every day, looking at your reflection, and seeing yourself looking like the opposite gender of what you really were? I can tell you, it's not a very fun experience after awhile, if ever.

Not to mention people treat Gardevoir differently than Kirlia. After all, _most_ people know that both male and female Ralts evolve into Kirlia, and then from there they can split off into their different evolutionary forms. But with the idiocy and common thought that only girl Kirlia could evolve into Gardevoir, every human who saw me from then on thought immediately that I was female. They call me "pretty" and "beautiful," and pretty much every other girly variation of those words. Not something you want to hear if you've trained all your life to be a battle-hardened warrior.

And then the things those humans made me _do._ You see, Crista likes to enter these contests, ranging anywhere from humiliate-your-Pokémon-by-making-them-look-rediculous-in-different-outfits to the sparkly explosion ones where the goal seems to be to make as many sparkles as you can while beating the crap out of another Pokémon. I hate the dress up ones the most. Crista shoves these horrid dresses on me, and does all sorts of other things to me to make me look as girly as possible. It is completely humiliating.

But the worst are the Pokémon. They can tell that I'm a guy, or at least, most of them can. I didn't count the retarded Machamp family as part of our species. And like the humans, many of them have forgotten the days of both male and female Gardevoir. They taunt and laugh at me, never ceasing in their torment. Even some of Crista's other Pokémon, my own partners, won't hesitate to pick fun at my appearance or the things Crista makes me do.

Sometimes they drive me so insane that it's like the Mightyena pack all over again. Trust me; I've given several trainers a reason to go to that beat up old Lavender Town in Kanto because their Pokémon crossed the line.

Now then, those of you who think that I'm just a whiny baby who has his feelings hurt too easily, you can go die in a ditch. I hope your body is subjected to the worst physical torment that Arceus can imagine while you are alive and that your soul will be destined to rot in the underworld for all eternity in endless torment.

For those of you that understand my pain, thank you. You will be the first to truly understand the torture that is my life. It seems to me sometimes as if I have been cursed for some reason.

Now for those of you who haven't walked off to the nearest ditch to die in, you may be asking yourselves, what's the point? Why did you want us to know this? Well the answer is, the truth needs to be told. The common misconception of purely female Gardevoir has gone on for too long. You humans have damned Gardevoir like me to a life of taunting and misunderstanding. My only request is that you remember. Remember my tale, and help me to purge the disease of idiocy that has gripped your race. For I do not know how much longer I can go on if my life remains as it is before going completely insane.

But for now, I must go. Even through my Poké Ball, I can hear Crista arguing with another trainer, and I have a feeling she will call upon me to help her defeat him. So if you will please excuse me, I have some work to do for my trainer, and if they know what's good for them, his Pokémon will refrain from making any comments about my appearance…

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**Alright, I have absolutely no idea where that came from. The idea just popped into my head, and wouldn't leave me alone. But hey, it gave me an excuse to write my first ever one-shot.**

**So how did I do? Frankly, I'm very inexperienced with one-shots and on top of that, this isn't my usual writing style, as you may have noticed. I haven't even written in first person before on this site! So be sure to press that little review button, and tell me how I did, what I need to work on, that kind of stuff. I could use all the advice I can get.**


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